#74 Prof. Elliot Berry - Obesity — Whose Responsibility?
In this episode of The Muscle Memoirs Podcast, I am joined by Professor Elliot Berry to discuss the ongoing obesity epidemic. We discuss obesity risk factors, the difficulty of weight loss maintenance, balancing weight stigma and personal responsibility, and potential interventions to attenuate the crisis.
Professor Elliot Berry graduated from the University of Cambridge, UK with distinction in medicine. His principal interests are the bio-psycho-social problems of weight regulation from obesity to anorexia nervosa, and the benefits of the Mediterranean diet. From a synthesis of this work, he evolved and published the concept of the "sociotype" to understand how people cope with life stress and chronic diseases in general, and food insecurity, in particular. He was the Director of the Braun School of Public Health & Community Medicine (2003-2006) and Head of the WHO Collaborating Center in Capacity Building in Public Health (2007-2013) and has published over 270 articles and book chapters.
References:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7025495/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6249372/
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
02:50 Obesity - whose responsibility?
10:00 The role of genetics and environment in obesity
12:25 The secret of Pharaoh's cows - metabolic efficiency
20:10 The difficulty of maintaining weight loss in the long-term
23:35 Is there an element of choice to obesity?
27:30 Weight stigma vs. concern for public health
31:15 Fat and fit is better than lean and lazy
33:55 Public health, the value of nutrition education, parenting, and other factors to consider in the development of obesity
47:52 Traffic light food labeling system
53:00 Taxing SSB and ultra-processed food
58:20 Summary
Sign-up for virtual nutrition counseling and personal training:
Website: hammerawayfitness.com
IG: https://www.instagram.com/hammerawayfitness/
Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/ho7Bfb
Professor Elliot Berry contact information:
Email: elliotb@ekmd.huji.ac.il
Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/themusclememoirs)